Researchers Find World's Deepest Whale Graveyard at 7002 Metres

Researchers located the world's deepest known whale graveyard during 32 crewed submersible dives along 1200 kilometres of seafloor in the Diamantina Zone of the southern Indian Ocean. The first fossils appeared at 7002 metres in the Dordrecht Deep section, more than 1100 kilometres south-west of Perth, Western Australia.

The team recorded densities reaching 760 individual whales per square kilometre across active whale-fall and fossil sites.

Expedition members collected 43 specimens dated between 120,000 and 5.26 million years old. One new species, Pterocetus diamantinae, has been formally described. Younger fossils were dominated by Andrews’ beaked whale and the strap-toothed whale.

Invertebrates at the sites reached densities of up to 2800 individuals per square metre, feeding on recent carcasses that included a 5-metre Antarctic minke whale. The expedition formed part of the Global Hadal Exploration Programme and the Indian Ocean Global TREnD programme.

Xiaotong Peng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said most fossils are hyper-dense beaked-whale rostra that resist degradation.

Slow sediment deposition of 0.05 to 0.55 millimetres per thousand years and ferromanganese oxide coatings further preserved the bones. Culum Brown of Macquarie University, who was not involved in the study, called the find an “amazing discovery” and noted the incredible density of remains. The study appeared in Nature with DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-10546-z.